The terraced town houses of D4′s Wellington Road have been long sought after: Victorian homes, most with good period details, set well back from this wide, quiet road with long front and back gardens, which are in walking distance of the city centre.
Number 3 Wellington Road, a 269 sq m (2,900 sq ft) house sold in April for €2.25 million, number 30 for €2.8m in September 2023 and number 79, currently for sale for €2.5 million, was featured in TV series Normal People as the house Marianne lives in.
Now a large Victorian redbrick that comes with a three-bed mews house behind it on Heytesbury Lane is for sale through Colliers for €3.95 million. Number 33 Wellington Road was lavishly refurbished in the 1990s, a few years after its owners bought it, 38 years ago. The main house is listed and is Ber exempt and the mews has a C1 Ber.
They expanded by adding a striking double-height conservatory at the back of the house and created two larger rooms in the original home. In the 1990s revamp they lost one bedroom and created a large main bedroom that runs the width of the house on the top floor and downstairs, created a 34ft-long main reception room by taking away the doors that divided the original livingroom/diningroom.
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They added a lift rising to all three floors from the conservatory, modernised the kitchen and bathrooms and, in 1997, built the three-bed mews at the bottom of the garden.
Now 33 Wellington Road, a two-bed 282 sq m (3,035 sq ft) terraced house and 33 Heytesbury Lane, the 181 sq m (1,948 sq ft) three-bed at the bottom of the garden are for sale as a single unit.
Prospective new owners might, like the current owners, keep the mews for their own use, rent or sell it, which could make in the region of €1.35 million in the current market, according to Colliers agent Catherine O’Connor. (Number 5 Heytesbury Lane, a modernised two-bed mews, is currently for sale through Colliers for €1.4m.)
There has been a lot of interest in the property since it went on the market in June, mostly from people who want to buy it as a single unit, she says. But there is planning permission to build a wall dividing the two houses, and tape part way down the back garden path showing where that would be.
Both properties in this executor sale are in good condition and new owners could take their time if they decide, as seems likely, on another revamp. There are beautifully landscaped and maintained gardens at the front and back of the house, and good parking off both Wellington Road and Heytesbury Lane.
Electronic gates open into the long front garden of the main house, leading to granite steps up to the front door. There’s a stained glass fanlight over the door, opening into an elegant hall with original cornicing and centre rose.
The 34ft-long livingroom on the right runs from the front to the back of the house: unusually, the owners replaced the usual doors connecting two receptions rooms with two Ionic columns, a choice that new owners may want to reverse.
The room has original plasterwork, two period-style marble fireplaces, a large sash window overlooking the front garden and French doors at the end opening on to a balcony next to the lift. The balcony looks down on to the conservatory and a striking two-storey-high mural of an Italian landscape that covers one wall.
A door off the balcony opens on to a small landing where doors with a mural painted on them open to reveal a butler’s pantry. A door from here opens into a large bathroom – currently set out as a study – overlooking the back garden.
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The kitchen and separate diningroom are at ground-floor garden level; the kitchen is smart, with cream units, a green Aga and island unit topped with granite and a timber chopping board inset. There’s a utility area in the hall beside it.
The diningroom behind the kitchen opens into the large, bright conservatory; the glass-walled lift fits neatly into a corner of this room. Glazed French doors open from here into the back garden; more glazed doors in the wall opposite the mural open into a cosy family room.
There are two bedrooms upstairs; stairs from the front hall lead up through an elegant arch to a double bedroom on the return with a small en suite shower. The large main bedroom running the width of the house was formed by removing a bedroom.
It looks over Wellington Road through two large sash windows. A dressing area with fitted cupboards leads to a large en suite bathroom and from there on to a bright balcony where the lift reaches the top floor.
The garden – and the mews, 33 Heytesbury Lane – is accessed from the conservatory. It’s a lovely well-tended space, with a granite patio outside the conservatory. A path leading down to the mews is bordered by plants that include clematis, rhododendron, wisteria, holly trees, box hedging and colourful shrubs.
The 181 sq m (1,948 sq ft) mews is a substantial house. The door from the garden opens into a good-sized livingroom with a coal-effect gas fire. A hall floored with black and white tiles opens into a bright kitchen floored with the same tiles. White units and bright red-tiled splashback and cherry-patterned wallpaper make a striking contrast. There’s a utility room off it and a storage room/wine cellar.
Upstairs there are two double bedrooms on the first floor, both en suite. The bedroom at the front has three windows overlooking the garden. A third bedroom on the second floor is also en suite; it has under eaves storage and access to the attic.
The Heytesbury Lane mews is concealed behind tall electronic wooden gates that open into a large space where there’s room to park two cars.
